Searsia lancea flowering

Searsia lancea, the karee is a well-known and much admired tree reaching up to 8 m in height (SA Tree List No. 386). It develops large, branched and often curved stems covered in rough, dark brown to almost black bark.

The trifoliolate leaflets are sessile or stalkless and narrowly lanceolate. Tthe terminal leaflet is only a little bigger than the lateral pair. Leaflets are olive green and sometimes slightly sickle-shaped. The margins are entire and the leaflets are hairless and leathery.

Large heads of small pale yellow-green flowers grow during the colder months of the year. Fruits are almost spherical, shiny brown or pale yellow to whitish

The species is found throughout much of South Africa apart from KwaZulu-Natal. It also occurs at least in Namibia and Zimbabwe beyond the SA border.

Its habitat is variable, often on calcareous substrata. The species is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century (Coates Palgrave, 2002; Van Wyk and Van Wyk, 1997; http://redlist.sanbi.org).